Abstract: A pattern recognition apparatus for recognizing or identifying fingerprint images and the like is described. The apparatus enables the determination of the coordinates and angular positions of characteritic points such as fingerprint minutiae. The pattern recognition apparatus includes a high resolution scanner for scanning a fingerprint impression or image, an analog to digital converter to convert the scanner signals to a digitally encoded image having many levels of gray scale data, an image enhancer to eliminate imperfections in the imagery, pre-editing circuits to edit out areas of the image which should not be further processed, a minutiae detection system having high redundancy to reduce the probability of missed minutiae, and a post-editing subsystem to eliminate false minutiae detections.